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Jell Balls

3 Stage - Visual Development

Expert feedback, stage 3

The visual development of the concept is impressive and the development work has been good throughout the competition. In the last stage of the competition we would be interested in hearing about the technical details of the concept. How is the motion pattern of the jell balls controlled? Good luck in the competition!

2 Stage - Concept Development

The concept of cleaning using jell balls is no changed. But , I studied concrete structure and function based on research and insight. I researched design of Jell Balls, worked computer Rendering also. Develop the concept.

Concept

I try to design a new robot cleaner to make up for this weakness with more innovative, more interesting and more future-oriented way. I have designed new robot cleaner to hoover up all the dust using jell surface tension principle. It's Jell Balls
these Jeall Balls rolled out of the product and then they soak up all the dust in the room thoroughly. so, it can save time and effort eightfold than the exiting robot cleaner. and, it can clean every corner of the house because it is small and its form can be changed easily. Also, it can clean watery places like the bathroom and kitchen because the gelatin does not react with water at all. So, I decide bathroom for computer rendering main background.

Develop

I tried to identify the problems with the jell balls that I came up with. It based on Consumer insight and research

First of all, I had to find a structure that would allow jell balls to be easily scattered around from the main body and gather back. My initial idea during Stage 1 was putting jell balls on a simple disk, and I needed to come up with a more concrete structure. If jell balls are gathered on a simple disk, then jell could run down even with a small shock, as well as when the main body is placed on the tilted floor. To solve the problem, I mounted a flexible. Since this flexible container has a shape that is caved in when it is not in operation, the jell balls remain gathered without being scattered outwards. Once operation starts, the jell balls are split into 8 units, and the flexible container swells upward. Then the 8 divided jell balls will be rolling outwards because a slope is created. After cleaning, the jell balls will easily gather onto the main body because of the slope.

Second, I worked on a structure that would filter out dust collected by the jell balls in the main body. Only foreign substances have to be filtered out, once jell balls gather back after cleaning. Since jell balls with a structure that only absorbs dust cannot discharge dust, I needed a structure that would only extract dust from jell balls in the body. if a tiny niche is created in the flexible container, jells and foreign substances would be absorbed. Then only the foreign substances will remain in the main body and the jells will be sent back out of the niche. It allows the main body to filter out only foreign substances. Plus, the niche allows the flexible container to become even more flexible and swell up and down easily.

It was quite challenging to find a model that would match jell balls. I mostly applied round shapes that are compatible with “balls.” Jell Ball’s Design shows you rounded and curved shapes. Jell Ball motivation Rounded design main body, which would constitute the main shape.

Expert feedback, stage 2

The design development of the concept is interesting and well thought, streamlined and appealing. In the visual development stage, in addition to showing the design in more detail, you could showcase how the balls find their cleaning target and again back to the station and what is the cleaning process.

1 Stage - My concept

Modern robot cleaners are not able to clean all the dust in cracks and angular corners in a house. So, in this project, I try to design a new robot cleaner to make up for this weakness with more innovative, more interesting and more future-oriented way. I have designed new cleaner appliance Jell Balls.
When it doesn’t operate, the viscosity liquid is together. However, when it works, the 8 nano- robots in gelatin pull a certain amount of liquid and consequently 8 round-shaped Jell Ball are created. At the same time, these balls rolled out of the main body and then they soak up all the dust in the room thoroughly. These Jell Balls soak things up which are smaller than them but they are not able to soak up bigger one such as larger walls, floors and furniture. After these Jell Balls soak up a certain amount of dust, the main body pulls these balls. When these balls are gathered in the main body, the surface tension is stopped and the gelatins are also gathered. At the same time, the dust and dirt in gelatin are collected in a dust bag. The users just throw away this dust bag after cleaning.
The benefits of this product are followed. First, it can save time and effort eightfold as the exiting robot cleaner can roll out 8 jell balls in the house at once. Second, it can clean every corner of the house because it is small and its form can be changed easily. Last, it can clean watery places like the bathroom because the gelatin does not react with water at all.

Expert feedback, stage 1

This concept offers an different approach to cleaning with a new kind of material usage. For further development of the concept, we suggest you seek for consumer insight and look into developing the design language accordingly.

My development blog

2) Functionality details: Smart Mapping
There are built-in camera and sensor installed on the perimeter of the main body. It will scan the structure of the room and comes up with a mini map. A moving pattern for each jell ball is determined according to the mini map.

There will be different moving patterns for each of the three modes: Timer Mode, Super Clean Mode, and Part Clean Mode. For example in Timer mode, since the cleaning has to be done in a short preset time, the moving pattern is made for jell balls to clean the dustier spots where the cleaning priority is higher. The moving patterns are rather curved than straight lines to save time. However, in SCM mode, the moving patterns are straight lines to cover the whole area without leaving any unclean spots. In PCM mode, the area to be cleaned is set by the user and a mini map is determined accordingly prior to the determination of the moving pattern. The jell balls will follow the determined moving patterns to clean the preset area. The area to be cleaned can be preset by dragging method.

1)Consumer insight : Three Modes
Jell Balls has three modes that was produced depending on User experience and cleaning habits : Timer mode, Super Clean mode, Part Clean mode.

Timer Mode: Timer mode is to clean the house within a given time. User can preset the cleaning time length in advance. Jell Balls will make trips primarily to dustier parts of the house within the given time. This is a mode to do quick cleaning in short time.

Super Clean Mode: Super Clean mode is to clean meticulously when there is enough time available. The cleaning time length is not given and it will concentrate only on the cleanliness of the house. It is a mode to get the cleanest result. It will scan the space to be cleaned by the smart mapping and compute the most efficient moving patterns for the jell balls without leaving any spots unclean. The Super Clean Mode moving pattern is tighter and denser than that of the Timer Mode, confirming the cleaner results.

Part Clean Mode: Part Clean mode is to clean a particularly dirty spot quickly if something is spilled on for example. User can preset an area to be cleaned so that jell balls will stay within the area and clean. It takes a lot of energy and time to clean the whole house, however, if the area to be cleaned is preset, it will save energy and time.

Because Jell Ball is a round ball, it doesn’t have fixed direction to clean of the room’s structure. The Jell Ball’s special Cleaning System devised because of the characteristic. The 8 Jell Balls spread around when it starts working. When the Jell Balls reach an object like a wall or a furniture very first time, it recognizes the distance and location of itself to the object and transmits the gained informations to the body. The body analyzes them and makes rough sketch of the place. When the sketch gets done, it calculates routes and speed to clean the place, entirely. It makes a kind of cleaning strategy. The Main body sends the ‘strategy’ to each of the Jell Balls and they start cleaning. The image explains this system more easily.

I found ‘Thinking Putty’ while I was researching variety materials and new technologies on the youtube. Because the putty has an element of magnet, it follows around a magnet when the magnet near by. And the Think Putty get around together if you put magnet on them when they spread around. When the Nano Robot starts working it gets electromagnetic force and the Jell Ball which has magnetic element attach to it at the same time. Thinking Putty is a powerful magnetic Putty but if it is liquid type like Jell that has better fluidity it will get a function of cleaning by the surface tension.

I researched specific ways how the balls find their cleaning target and the way back to the main body. First, I looked for the technology that can make Jell Balls to change their direction and move around by themselves. Finally, I found the ‘Sphero Ball’ that is on sale in the city. The ‘Sphero Ball’ uses Gyro Sensor and a pendulum and makes its own body roll. If the pendulum is lean the ball roll over to the direction of the pendulum by the weight. When the ball gets the a course the wheels inside of the ball add propulsion to roll the ball faster. It can be managed by Smartphone because it is linked with a application of Smartphone. The nano robot inside of the Jell Ball can change the direction and get back to the main body with a pendulum like the Sphero Ball. Also Jell Ball has a GPS and a sensor that can recognize their own location and distance.

I mostly applied round shapes that are compatible with “balls.” In the initial sketch (sketch 1), I worked on a design that is sleek and straightforward. It is a design with a strong mechanic feel. On the other hand, Sketch 2 shows you more slim and curved shapes. Render 1 features a circular main body, which would constitute the main shape. If you look at the main body from above, you will see the shape of two circles. The Detai sketch of Sketch3,4,5,6 is designed to work on models that would enable compatible arrangement of dust bin, filter, and interface screen.

If you have good ideas to improve the design or other things, please leave a comment.

I tried to identify the problems with the jell balls that I came up with.

First of all, I had to find a structure that would allow jell balls to be easily scattered around from the main body and gather back. My initial idea during Stage 1 was putting jell balls on a simple disk, and I needed to come up with a more concrete structure. If jell balls are gathered on a simple disk, then jell could run down even with a small shock, as well as when the main body is placed on the tilted floor. To solve the problem, I mounted a flexible container like the sketch No.1. Since this flexible container has a shape that is caved in when it is not in operation, the jell balls remain gathered without being scattered outwards. Once operation starts, the jell balls are split into 8 units, and the flexible container swells upward. Then the 8 divided jell balls will be rolling outwards because a slope is created. After cleaning, the jell balls will easily gather onto the main body because of the slope.

Second, I worked on a structure that would filter out dust collected by the jell balls in the main body. Only foreign substances have to be filtered out, once jell balls gather back after cleaning. Since jell balls with a structure that only absorbs dust cannot discharge dust, I needed a structure that would only extract dust from jell balls in the body. As the sketch No. 2 shows, if a tiny niche is created in the flexible container, jells and foreign substances would be absorbed. Then only the foreign substances will remain in the main body and the jells will be sent back out of the niche. It allows the main body to filter out only foreign substances. Plus, the niche allows the flexible container to become even more flexible and swell up and down easily.

This is my first solution that I am working on to develop the concept of jell balls. If you have ideas to develop them further, please leave a comment.